So you want to be rich? Super rich? Filthy rich? How do you do it? What jobs, industries or sectors should you go into if you want to earn a mint?

You may be surprised to find out that most of the wealthiest people in the country did not make their fortune by rising to the top in a competitive dog-eat-dog economy – but by being related to someone else who did all the hard work.

And many more made a packet from property, and often had to be well-heeled in the first place to be able to invest.

But there are people out there who did bulge their wallet from their own hard graft – and some of them were even from, or associated with, Plymouth.

So here’s the best ways to make a pile of dosh – whether by the sweat of your brow or other methods – and some of the Plymouth people who have done it.

Property – Jeff Deacon

Jeff Deacon of Hindhead Property

Property is by far the most lucrative sector to be in according to the Sunday Times Rich list.

The wealthiest people in the UK own a staggering £100billion of property and investing in bricks and mortar is usually more than just a safe investment, it’s a money-spinning one.

In Plymouth, Jeff Deacon is proof of how valuable property can be.

Born into a working class Plymouth family he left the city and became head of a successful recruitment firm in London.

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He moved the Royal William Yard in 2013 and it thrived, employing about 30 people in Plymouth by 2017, 55 around the rest of the UK and another 15 in the USA where it has a multi-million pound annual turnover with American operatives in Arkansas, California, Delaware, Washington DC, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

The firm mainly provides advice about equity release, a way for older people to free-up cash from their properties, and then assigns them to a plan.

Responsible Lending, based at Princess Court, in the city centre’s Princess Street, was last year in talks with major investment banks, with a view to lending £100million to £200million. But Mr Wilkie said some banks had mentioned £800million, as the equity release sector is growing.

Industry – Dan McCauley

Dan McCauley (left) in his days as Plymouth Argyle chairman

The days of the great 19th Century “robber baron” industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie are long in the past, but industry is still a way to make a fortune and accounts for £25billion of the UK’s top people’s wealth.

All you have to do is set up a factory and make something everyone wants.

Former Plymouth Argyle chairman Dan McCauley lined his pockets after building up Tiverton-based engineering company Rotolok.

He also has property interests, including owning Drake’s Island, and was worth at least £30 million when he last graced the Sunday Times Rich List in 2002.

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That he has fallen out of the list doesn’t mean he’s got poorer – it’s just others, including a floor of overseas plutocrats now domiciled on these shores, have earned more.

Sean Swales, Rotolok managing director, said the firm, which specialises in manufacturing for the bulk handling sector, has 400 workers spread across operations in the UK, USA, France, India, Singapore, Australia and South Africa.

He said Rotolok is a profitable operation and not indebted and therefore able to afford the construction costs of building a Drake’s Island resort, which have moved beyond £10million.

He said 100 people work in the firm’s other hotel, in Antigua, which has been visited by pop diva Mariah Carey, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe, and the visiting England, Australia and India cricket teams.

Inheritance – James St Aubyn

Mary and James St Aubyn

More than £20billion owned by the UK’s richest people is due to them inheriting their pot.

In Cornwall St Aubyn Estates is the current vehicle for a family which has owned a huge slice of the county for more than 600 years – and once had a big chunk of Plymouth too, including much of Devonport and North Prospect.

Nowadays it is a modern, family owned enterprise spanning 5,000 acres with a diverse portfolio of businesses which include land and property management, tourism and hospitality, building and farming.

At the heart of the estate is St Michael’s Mount, which the St Aubyn family run in partnership with the National Trust.

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The first member of the St Aubyn family to move to Cornwall was Guy St Aubyn who married the heiress of Colquite in the mid fourteenth Century.

In 2003, James and Mary St Aubyn moved to the island castle with their four children.

They became Lord and Lady St Levan when the previous Lord, James’s uncle, died in 2013.

Mary’s early career, in contrast to her current role as a director of St Aubyn Estates, began as a social worker in Plymouth.

Retail – Chris Dawson

Retail magnate Chris Dawson (Image: Penny Cross)

No list of the wealthiest people associated with Plymouth would be complete without megabucks retail magnate Chris Dawson.

With retailers accounting for £20billion of the combined wealth in the Sunday Times Rich List, Mr Dawson has at least a £1billion slice of that dough.

But, unlike those that inherited their moolah, Mr Dawson has built his empire from scratch.

Mr Dawson, founder and owner of The Range store chain, saw his wealth soar during 2016/17in as he opened more stores, built a huge distribution centre near Bristol and announced plans for an enormous new HQ and superstore in Plymouth.

It’s more risky but the rewards can be great, with about £20billion of the UK’s Rich List being investment wheeler dealers, so putting your hard-earned into stocks and shares and other companies can bring a bumper payday.

Canadian Phil Beinhaker has just splashed £20million on shares in Plymouth’s waterside development company Sutton Harbour Holdings plc, now taking a controlling interest.

But, of course, he had to make those greenbacks first.

Mr Beinhaker set up the world’s fourth biggest architecture practice and was involved in building major sports arenas, hospitals, office blocks, restaurants and housing estates in North America and Europe.

The 76-year-old founded IBI Group, in Toronto, Canada, an international professional services company working in architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture, transportation, and technology.

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It is one of the largest architecture or architecture/engineering firms in the world – in fourth place according to some rankings, with more than 2,500 employees and 60 offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Most of its business is in Canada and the USA but its UK operations account for 15 per cent of the workload.

Mr Beinhaker now lives in the UK where he has founded Beinhaker Design Services.

FB Investors is an English limited liability partnership incorporated on November, 13, 2017, and it now controls SHH.

Pharmaceuticals – Kirsty Bertarelli

Kirsty Bertarelli, wife of Ernesto Bertarelli, spends months at sea on her superyacht

Britain’s richest woman is not from Plymouth, nor does she live here, but when Kirsty Bertarelli wanted someone to build her a £100million yacht she naturally looked to the Ocean City.

With a fortune of £11.5billion, Mrs Bertarelli had more than enough spare change to have her Vava II vessel, the 33rd largest in the world, put together at Devonport Dockyard.

It’s little wonder she has that sort of capital to expend, the global pharma market was estimated at an eye-watering US$816billion in 2016.

And just under £20billion of UK Rich List wealth is down to drugs – of the legal kind, of course.

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Her performance was not a hit with critics however, with one remarking on her “vapid pout“ and saying she “delivers the most wooden line-readings of any British actress since Elizabeth Hurley in Bedazzled”.

Another said she “can’t act for toffee” and yet another accused her of “sucking the life out of every scene she appears in like some pneumatic Dyson sexbot”.

She did go on to star in the superb 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road, which received 10 Academy Award nominations, playing one of the baddy’s harem and not saying a lot.

Her celebrity helped her land at number 27 in Heat magazine’s richest Brits under 30 list, in 2013, with a fortune of £5.6million.

Gambling – Pete Kyle

Pete Kyle poses with his giant cheque - for more than £5million (Image: Al Stewart)

The UK gambling industry hit a record £13.8billion turnover in the year to September 2016, fuelled mainly by a surge in spending on the National Lottery, online gaming and fixed odds betting terminals.

And with your route to a gambling-based fortune depending on how lucky you are, and how much and how frequently you are prepared to put your cash on the line, anyone has a shot at financial glory.

Like Plymouth’s Pete Kyle, for instance.

In 2005 he bagged £5,122,412 when he struck lucky on the National Lottery.

Mr Kyle, then aged 52, guessed all six numbers right to win a whopping £5.1million.